Ted Cruz speech reignites John McCain feud

That’s the question left hanging after Sen. Ted Cruz’s marathon performance in which he made broad insinuations about his colleagues much as he did to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel during confirmation hearings last February.

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Cruz's speech: 10 colorful quotes

Hagel, a Vietnam combat veteran and former Republican member of the Senate from Nebraska, found himself a target for Cruz who raised the specter of alleged hidden money from foreign governments that might compromise Hagel’s judgment. This prompted Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to famously interject: “Sen. Hagel is an honorable man who has served his country, and no one on this committee at any time should impugn his character.”

Seven months later, the scene repeated itself on the floor of the Senate Wednesday. Only this time McCain was defending his own — and the Senate’s — honor after Cruz had suggested that those who oppose his tough tactics were akin to “appeasers” before World War II.

“I do not begrudge Sen. Cruz or any other senator who wants to come to talk as long as they want to,” McCain said. “But I do disagree strongly to allege that there are people today who are like those who prior to World War II didn’t stand up and oppose the atrocities that were taking place in Europe.”

“I have an open and honest disagreement with the process.” McCain said. “Comparing it to those who appeased, who were the appeasers …is an inappropriate place for debate on the floor of the United States Senate.”

Prior to speaking on the floor, McCain said he had taken his complaint first to Cruz. “He said he only intended it to be applied to pundits and not to members of the Senate,” McCain said. “I find that a difference without a distinction.”

Indeed, in the course of his floor performance, Cruz—a Harvard-trained lawyer—insisted that he had “no intention of speaking ill of any Senator, Republican or Democratic, because it is not about us.”

But that didn’t stop him from painting his 99 colleagues with a broad brush, and by the time dawn arrived, the clubby image of the Senate as “upper chamber” had taken a beating.

Breaking with the usual traditions of decorum, Cruz repeatedly spoke of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) by name, and not simply his title. He chastised fellow senators for not being on the floor to engage with him on the health care debate. And speaking directly of the Senate, he pounded on the image of members more concerned about invites to Washington cocktail parties than listening to their constituents.

“Why is Washington broken?” Cruz asked. “Because you have 100 people, a significant number of whom on a daily basis, tell their boss, tell their constituents: I am too busy for you.”

“It is apparently very important to be invited to all the right cocktail parties in town,” Cruz said. “I do not go to a whole lot of cocktail parties in town… But there are members of this body for whom that is very important.”

“It’s is a little bit akin to the World Wrestling Federation, wrestling matches where it is all rigged,” Cruz added. “There are some members of this body, if we could have 100 show votes, saying here is what we are for, but mind you, none of them are actually going to change the law, none of them are going to make one iota of difference to the American people because they will never become law…that curiously would make a significant number of senators happy.”

Yet after all of this, Cruz himself joined in support of the vote Wednesday for cloture sought by Reid.